Foundress of the Ursulines, born 21 March, 1474, at Desenzano, a
small town on the southwestern shore of Lake Garda in Lombardy; died 27
January, 1540, at Brescia.
She was left an orphan at the age of ten and together with her
elder sister came to the home of her uncle at the neighbouring town of
Salo where they led an angelic life. When her sister met with a sudden
death, without being able to receive the last sacraments, young Angela
was much distressed. She became a tertiary of St. Francis and greatly
increased her prayers and mortifications for the repose of her sister's
soul. In her anguish and pious simplicity she prayed God to reveal to
her the condition of her deceased sister. It is said that by a vision
she was satisfied her sister was in the company of the saints in heaven.
When she was twenty years old, her uncle died, and she returned
to her paternal home at Desenzano. Convinced that the great need of her
times was a better instruction of young girls in the rudiments of the
Christian religion, she converted her home into a school where at stated
intervals she daily gathered all the little girls of Desenzano and
taught them the elements of Christianity. It is related that one day,
while in an ecstasy, she had a vision in which it was revealed to her
that she was to found an association of virgins who were to devote their
lives to the religious training of young girls. The school she had
established at Desenzano soon bore abundant fruit, and she was invited
to the neighbouring city, Brescia, to establish a similar school at that
place. Angela gladly accepted the invitation.
In 1524, while making a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, she became
suddenly blind when she was on the island of Crete, but continued her
journey to the Holy Places and was cured on her return while praying
before a crucifix at the same place where she was struck with blindness a
few weeks before. When, in the jubilee year 1525, she had come to Rome
to gain the indulgences, Pope Clement VII, who had heard of her great
holiness and her extraordinary success as a religious teacher of young
girls, invited her to remain in Rome; but Angela, who shunned publicity,
returned to Brescia. Finally, on the 25th of November, 1535, Angela
chose twelve virgins and laid the foundation of the order of the
Ursulines in a small house near the Church of St. Afra in Brescia.
Having been five years superior of the newly-founded order, she died.
Her body lies buried in the Church of St. Afra at Brescia. She
was beatified in 1768, by Clement XIII, and canonized in 1807, by Pius
VII.
HEIMBUCHER, Orden und Kongregationen (Paderborn, 1896), 1
511 sqq., SEEB`CK, Herrlichkeit der katholischen Kirche (Innsbruck,
1900); GUÉRIN, Les petite Bollandsstes (Paris), III, 326 sqq., Bullarii
Romani Continuatio, VII, pt. I; her biography has been written in French
by BAUTHORS (Abbeville, 1894) at Notre Dame d'Alet (1885), PASTEL,
(Paris, 1878); in German by an Ursuline (Innsbruck, 1893), by an
Ursuline (Paderborn, 1892), in Italian by GIRELLI (Brescia, 1871);by
SALVATORI (Rome, 1807).
MICHAEL OTT (cfr. Catholic Encyclopedia)
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